SRS-Slow Cooker Mexican Shredded Beef

Welcome back to another round of Surprise Recipe Swap.  I was assigned a new blogger by Hungry Little Girl.  This month it was Amy's Cooking Adventures.  I wanted to share a beef recipe with you all, since May is Beef Month.  I found her fabulous recipe for Slow Cooker Mexican Shredded Beef.

This fit in great with my crazy busy schedule this week.  We have been Spoon Feeding Nitrogen to Corn, Mowing Hay, replanting corn that did not grow along with all the regular cattle chores.  Yes, it is crazy busy in between rains here.

I shared my recipe for Spicy Shredded Beef last week.  This one takes a bit more prep time, but we all agreed that it is a step better if you have the ingredients and the time to measure.

I wish I had remembered to take a better picture. 

Slow Cooker Mexican Shredded Beef

1.5-2 pound boneless beef roast
3 garlic cloves
1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Sprinkle beef with salt and pepper.  Place garlic, jalapeno, onion, tomato paste, chili powder, cumin and cayenne in slow cooker.  Place beef on top.  Cook on high for 6 hours for low for 8 hours.

After 8 hours, remove beef from the slow cooker and use 2 forks to shred.  Pour a small amount of the cooking liquid over the beef.

Serve as tostadas, tacos, burritos, super nachos or taco salad with your favorite toppings.

-A Kansas Farm Mom

If you want to join the Surprise Recipe Swap, follow this link to get all the details. 

W4DW- Longhorn Steer Cake

What’s for Dinner Wednesday’s this month are all about May and Beef Month.  What better way to celebrate Beef month than with a Longhorn Steer cake?   

My oldest son is certainly the cowboy of the family and insisted I make him a Longhorn Steer cake for his birthday.  A few years back he was happy with crushed up vanilla wafers to look like a rodeo arena and a plastic bucking bull in the middle, but not this year.  

I started by downloading a clip art of a Longhorn head much like the University of Texas logo.  I enlarged it to fit a 9x13 cake pan lengthwise.  I cut the horns off because I had a great idea to make them better than out of cake.  I cut the ears off, so we wouldn't waste so much cake.  Here's what it looked like laid out in the pan.

I cut around the paper patterns and cut the cake with a sharp knife and then laid them on the serving platter (or should I say huge cookie sheet). 

I am not a cake decorating expert, but I have learned that you should always make a thin icing and ice the cake to hold in the crumbs.  I always let it dry for an hour or two and then I don't get crumbs in the icing everyone sees. 

Of course, my child couldn't have a solid colored Longhorn, no it needed to have a star in the middle of its forehead.

I have to admit that this is really good for me to get this far.  It might not be impressive to some out there, but I never decorated cakes until I had kids.  I really should take a class sometime.

I asked for some assistance on how to make horns one night on Facebook and let me tell you my followers did not let me down.  I had several ideas and ideas that built on others ideas.  Here is what I decided to do...make Rice Krispie Treats!

The Rice Krispie horns worked really well.  They were actually easier to work with than I thought they would be.  I used a lot on butter on my hands and the pastry mat I used.  I knew my son would say that they didn't look like horns and so did one of my friends, so we covered the horns in white almond bark.

After I let these dry, I could place them in the appropriate location for the horns.

Yes, my horns were a little big for my huge cookie sheet and I actually put saucers under them to support them.  :)  But guess what?!  My little cowboy loved it and was so proud that his mama made him the cake he requested.  Oh, and guess what!  The cake did have beef in it.  Marshmallows are actually made from beef by-products and you can read more about them here in a speech that my little cowboy gave last year.

I hope ya'll like the cake idea.  Let me know if you need some more specific directions and I will try to help you out.  A special thank you goes to Jackie, Christy, and Miranda that helped with how to make the horns.

-A Kansas Farm Mom